


Cult Camp

by ihatemyson



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Brainwashed! Max, Brainwashing, But Max came along with Daniel, Camp Camp - Freeform, Camp camp au, Character Death, Cult, Cult Camp, I can't stress this enough, It's like the cult camp episode, Max is in a cult, Multi, Other, Poisoning, Purified! Max, Sacrifice, also this was technically the first thing i wrote for camp camp so, at all, dadvid(?), ding dong people are gone, enjoy, fillers, i'm not creative enough for shit like that, its bad, no shippy, people die, sorry the desc is so fucking vague
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-29
Updated: 2018-08-07
Packaged: 2019-02-08 06:05:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12858363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ihatemyson/pseuds/ihatemyson
Summary: Daniel and Max come across a summer camp that is a lot more difficult to cleanse compared to the others they've been to.-Based on the Brainwashed!Max AU





	1. 1

"Remember to smile, Max."

_k_ _nock knock knock_

"Hello, I'm here for the job listing?" He called out, hoping that there would be someone on the other side.

A few moments later, a woman answered the door, opening it with a wide from on her face.

"Yes! This is..." her voice trailed off.

He smiled, "Good morning!"

The two standing on the other side of the door saw that the moment she locked eyes with the adult, the smile fell off her face. The blond brushed it off, breathing in and out, and having the kid standing next to him do the same. It ticked the woman off on how in sync they were, as if they had done this more than once.

"Smell that fresh mountain air. Gosh, now that's the kind of nature you don't just find in any 'ol neck of the woods."

"Oh dear lord no-" she muttered.

A tall redhead that was standing behind her poked his head out to see what was going on. Seeing the man standing there, he raised an eyebrow.

"Hello?"

"Oh, well, hello there friend!"

He gave the kid, still standing next to him, the small silver briefcase that used to be in one of his hands. Instead of the kid making some remark or showing any kinds if distress, he happily took it, and made sure he didn't drop it.

"Oh, where are my manners?" He asked the two, "My name is  _Daniel_ , your camp counselor applicant. I hope I'm not too late to submit my resume."

"Too late?" The redhead grinned, "You're the first one!"

He gave a small laugh, "Are you pulling my leg?"

"No leg pulling here, but we are keen on handshakes." The man wiggled his eyebrows, and stuck out his hand as an offer for the other to shake it.

"Well, who isn't?" He gladly took it, and shook his hand.

"The name's David."

"Pleasure to meet you, David."

"The pleasure's all mine, Daniel." They dropped their hands, "So, what sort of experience do you have?" David asked.

Daniel frowned. "Well, sadly, my old camp was recently shut down." He ruffled the kid's hair, but got no response out of him, "And ever since, we've been searching night and day for a new group of eager young kiddos I can help to educate and reach their full potential."

"Did you hear that, Gwen?" David turned, and jabbed a thumb towards Daniel, "I think we just hit the jackpot! This was a great idea!"

"Y'know, I think now's the perfect time for me to use my vacation days." The woman answered in a low voice.

"Aw, Gwen, are you sure?" David and Daniel asked in sync,

Gwen had driven off in an old car not much later.

"Well, more fun for us!"

Daniel plucked the suitcase out of the kid's hand, obviously not expecting to have his arm grabbed so he could be pulled into the counselor's cabin.

"Come on, Daniel! I think you're gonna fit in here  _just_ fine."

The kid's eye twitched, but did nothing else in response to what David did when he saw that Daniel wasn't being threatened.

"I think so too, David. I think so too..."

Max did, though, pick up the newspaper he dropped when David dragged him in.

_ENTHUSIASTIC CULT LEADER LEAVES ENTIRE COMPOUND DEAD!_

The newspaper got thrown away after he tucked it in, so the  _help_ _wanted_ was facing the front.

" _Max?_ "

At the sound of his name being called put by someone who wasn't Daniel, the boy adorned in all white clothing almost broke his neck to face where the sound came from. It made a disgusting cracking noise, and he noticed that it disturbed the poor kid that only wanted to get his attention.

The one who called his name didn't look familiar in the slightest.

"Hello." He responded to the kid, now revealing itself to be a small boy with a fishbowl on his head, presumably another camper among all the other kids there.

"What are you..." the boy trailed off, staring at the space behind Max as if there was something standing behind him.

Max looked confused at first, thinking nobody was behind him until he felt someone grip his arm, and drag him inside along with the other 2 cheerful counselors.

"I hope you don't mind if my little helper here joins the camp program, do you?"

"Not at all." David crouched in front of the kid, "And what might your name be?"

Max gave Daniel a look. He was smiling, but his eyes showed that he was a bit too nervous to continue without permission.

"Go on." Daniel pressed.

He looked back at David.

"My name is Max."

"Nice to meet you, Max!" He reached out to ruffle his hair, frowning a little when he saw Max step out to prevent him from doing so.

"Nice to meet you too, camp counselor David."

David stood again.

"Go ahead and hang out with all the other campers while I talk to David, Max. I'm sure they'll enjoy your company." Daniel smiled.

Max ran off, dragging a backpack with wheels along with him. Dear Old Daniel didn't specify how long they would be staying. Every time they hopped from camp to camp, his stuff was already packed, just in case they stayed longer than a night.

Max dug into his pocket, pulling out an inhaler-type object, and blowing that shit into his mouth like it was addictive. He held his breath for a minute, but the moment the object touched the bottom of his pocket, he blew out what looked like steam.

All the other kids were out on a field. Some playing a game of baseball, others watching with curiosity to see how bad the damage would be.

A grenade landed gently in front of Max, causing everyone to stop and stare at him.

Max picked the grenade up with no fear, lightly tossing in his hand.

"Who are you?" Some kid asked.

"Hello everyone. My name is  _Max_ _,_ and I am a new camper here at Camp Campbell."

He knew the same guy who called out to him earlier in the day was nearby, but he didn't even spare him a glance.

"Hi Max..." Some greeted him.

"I was told to hang out with the other campers. May I join your game until we are all called in to meet your new counselor?"

"Sorry, we were just finishing."

His face stretched out a little, but the smile planted on it didn't slip.

"Oh, I see."

He tossed the grenade back to the nearest person paying attention, pivoting on his heel, and walking away.

It was only a few moments before-

"Max, wait!"

He froze for a minute, turning only his head to see who else had called out to him. It was a girl with a vibrant green hair color, one he didn't even notice was in the crowd until she was staring right at him.

"Yes?"

"How long do you plan on staying here?"

Max paused.

"I'm not sure."

"You need a tent?"

"I think so."

"My pal Neil could share with you-"

"What!" The male next to her protested.

"Really?"

"Yeah!"

"Nikki, I am  _not_ -"

But she simply ignored him, and walked back towards Max. She grabbed his hand, and lead him towards a large tent that was one of many, all being identical to one another. Max wondered if he should put something in front of or near it to tell him that  _this_  was his tent.

Neil showed up moments later, just in case something happened.

"This is the only tent with one camper in it. The one  _you_ will be staying in." The girl opened it up.

Inside, there were 2 cots, both on opposite sides of the room. Max could only assume that the empty one would be his.

"Is there any reason why you didn't want me staying in here?" Max asked.

"He enjoys his privacy, whatever that means."

Neil mumbled something under his breath.

"Thank you for letting me stay here, Neil." Max smiled.

"I didn't have much of a choice."

"My name's Nikki, by the way." The girl held out her hand.

Max stared at it for a minute, then looked back up at her.

"I don't have anything to give you..." He mumbled, hoping that she hadn't found out about the dangerous items residing in his pocket.

"What? No, silly, I just want to shake your hand."

"Oh!" He took her hand, and shook it with as much excitement as he could muster.

The sound of a trumpet being played in the distance made all three kids jolt in surprise.

"Wonder what David wants." Nikki pondered, still clinging on to Max's hand.

"Didn't you say something about a new... counselor?" Neil asked.

Max nodded, "His name's Daniel. He's really nice."

"Let's meet him, then!" Nikki changed her grip from holding his hand, to holding his arm. He winced, but let himself get dragged by Nikki towards one of the cabins that the rest of the campers were filing into. Neil wasn't too far behind them, wondering if this 'Daniel' was going to be able to handle all these kids, much like David and Gwen had been doing.


	2. 1

"Does anyone here have an interest in... Space?"

Max stood next to Daniel, smiling and staring at what looked like a sea of campers due to his short height. Nobody really passed him any sort of glance, as they were just mostly focused on the terrifying blond man that started spatting the same useless bullshit he did with every camp. It was the whole  _negative emotions come from space_ rant that Max was forced to sit through every time they cleansed a camo together. He would never admit it to anyone, but they've done this so many times, that he recently started to doubt him.

He frowned, and locked eyes with the ground. He knew that silently doubting stuff like that was a bad habit, and would probably end in him getting in trouble if he mentioned anything about it.

His heart pounded louder than he wanted it to, and he felt his shaky hand reach into his pocket.

"Okay, I'm going to stop you right there."

Two necks snapped, one louder than the other. Max pushed his other hand into pocket to prevent anyone from wondering why he only had one hand in his pocket, and stared at the kid who interrupted Daniel.

"Are you suggesting that the massive explosion responsible for the creation of the universe is also responsible for some sort of endless, radioactive  _evil_?"

It was Neil.

"Oh, no. Not at all! The Big Bang didn't create the universe. It was just a side effect of the Millenia Wars, started by Zeemuug and the Galactic Confederacy!" He wiggled his hands in the air to emphasize his point.

"Right." He rolled his eyes.

Max had a lot of small trinkets in his large front pocket, but the deadliest would have to be his crooked knife. It was originally meant for sacrificing small animals or much larger animals to please whatever God Daniel believed in at the time, but the more he heard the kid drone on about how he was wrong, the harder he gripped on the weapon's handle. He wasn't planning on pulling it out right now, as that would result in him getting it taken out or getting them both kicked out before their plan had even got put into action, but he knew he was going to have to if someone would attempt to hurt Daniel.

Daniel scooted closer to the one that spoke out until he got uncomfortably close, grinning from ear to ear.

"You must be Neil. David told me about you were quite the... inquisitive little fellow."

"Hey, buddy. let's try to recognize some.. personal space here..." he made him back up, pushing his face away.

"Why do you feel the need to question everything, Neil?" His neck cracked, "What good has it led to?"

"Well. For one, I'm not walking around, talking about "Zeemuug"."

"But, are you happy with your life? Are you at peace? Or do you find yourself filled with anxiety and doubt?" He took a large step back, and looked over at Max, expecting him to nail the minimal lines he was allowed to say, "Doesn't the world seem awfully scary?"

"It does!" Someone agreed before Max could've said it himself.

Daniel looked over at the kid.

"Well, what if I told you it didn't have to be?"

"I don't really know what you're selling here, Daniel... But I am  _buying_  it."

Max laughed a little.

"Then help me, help you, help others!"

The brawny kid grabbed the theater kid, and started choking him out.

"Yeah! I'm helping!"

"Excellent! Now, who else wants to help and reach ascension?"

"What's going on here?" David asked, poking his head through the doorway. Behind him was Nikki, one of the only campers that Max knew by name.

"Hello David! We were just about to-"

"We already have activities for the day planned out," someone deadpanned from the crowd, "We were focusing on what Nikki signed up for."

Daniel's smile didn't change.

"Oh, I see."

"Don't worry, Daniel! You can watch the rest of the campers, while I give the new camper a  _tour!_ "

Max looked up at Daniel, silently hoping that he would get it and convince David to let Max come along with them.

But Daniel didn't meet his gaze. He was smiling, his eye was twitching, and he was trying his best not to crack his neck.

"Of course!" He said finally.

"Great! Nikki, could you help him along?"

Nikki didn't dare touch Daniel's hand to lead him out the door, she only motioned for him and the other kids to follow her.

Daniel shot Max a final angry glare before he disappeared, leaving Max with chills.

Once everyone was out, David looked down at Max, and grinned as wide as he could.

"Let's get started, huh?"

Max didn't find the tour very entertaining. David's overall enthusiasm reminded him of Daniel's whenever he had to force his happiness to please the other counselors or kids they came across, just neverending and not sounding like it would break anytime soon. There was a video he got to see near the end of it. He was excited at first to find that he'd get a break from hearing David's annoying voice ramble on and on about how great everything was, but was quickly disappointed to find that the video was almost exactly that, just in terrible quality. Still, the counselor seemed to like it, so Max had to sit through it.

When it ended, it took Max everything he had not to sigh in relief.

When he saw Daniel walking towards them, face stretched into one of the worst forced smiles he saw him in, Max immediately turned to David.

"When's dinner being served?" He asked softly, tugging on David's shirt to get his attention.

"Thanks for reminding me, Max!" He ruffled his hair, stopping as soon as Max slapped it off.

The campers all filed into the mess hall, with David not too far behind them.

"Max." Daniel grumbled, tugging at his sweater and pulling him back even though he knew he wasn't going to leave without him. When the ten-year-old looked up, he was almost frightened to see that Daniel wasn't smiling, but frowning. He was obviously annoyed, but not mad to the point where he'd crack his neck every 5 seconds.

"What happened, Daniel? Do we need to leave again?"

"no, we're just... delayed a little. We need to stay here a while longer than I would've wanted."

Max's face visibly lit up.

"Can I hang out with the other kids?"

Daniel tried to glare at him, but his expression remained somewhat peaceful.

" _Why?_ "

"I don't know, I guess I thought it will help to get close to these kids because, you know, we're going to be here a while, and the other counselors and campers seem to be very close." He successfully kept himself from stammering.

Daniel muttered to himself for a minute, almost turning away from him completely.

"Well?"

Daniel looked back, and the kid visibly tensed, but was relieved to find that Daniel wasn't going to hurt him.

"Go ahead."

Max sprinted towards the mess hall, only to step inside the building as quietly as he possibly could to avoid having any attention drawn to himself. He was happy to see that, once Nikki had spotted him, that she was excited to find out whether or not Max wanted to sit with her and Neil.

The answer was yes. Yes, he would like to hang out them.


	3. 3

"Hello, Neil."

The child Max was referring to wasn't paying enough attention to notice that Max had walked in a while before he started talking.

"Hey," he replied, disinterested. He was too engrossed in this book he found to continue any time-worthy conversation.

When he saw that Neil had refused to look up when speaking to him, Max waddled on over to his bed, and plopped his brand-new sheets on to it. He spread them all out across the cot, tucking in the sides neatly and making sure the pillow was straight and smooth before he even thought about continuing.

When Neil finished a chapter, he looked up from his book, and saw how professional Max's side of the room looked compared to his. While it was bland and didn't show off much of his own interests, it still shows that one if the people on here actually cared about how it looked in case anyone ever saw it

"So," he tried sparking up another stellar conversation, slowly closing the book he was reading, "What camp were you signed up for?"

Max looked through his backpack.

"This one?" He pulled something out, examined it, and put it back in.

"No no, which camp?"

"I'm staying at the same camp you are."

"Science camp?"

"Wh-" he looked at him to show how confused he was, "no. This is Camp Campbell."

"Have you not been signed up for one?"

"I was signed up for  _this_ camp."

"What-"

"I'm confused." He muttered, rubbing his eye.

After a brilliant moment of realization, Neil took the next few minutes to explain how the camp worked. How it was a trap, and that the brochures on display were designed to trick the parent into thinking that their kid would get into a specific camp instead of a camp alongside many other camps. He expressed how much he wanted to spend this summer in an air-conditioned laboratory, rather than staying at some, quote, 'shithole.'

After Neil got quiet, Max waited a few seconds to make sure that he was done talking before speaking out himself.

"So it's some sort of... Camp Camp?"

"I guess? What did your parents sign you up for?"

Neil watched Max's once calm expression turn into one of anger.

"Daniel is  _not_ my dad." He muttered.

"Okay, okay."

"And uh, I wasn't signed up for anything."

"What?"

"Yeah. Daniel just saw that a camp needed a new counselor, and... I came along." He turned away again to face his backpack, "But it doesn't really matter. I'm not really good at any of the activities they have available."

"What  _are_  you good at?"

Max pondered for a moment.

"I can play the violin. Daniel taught me how."

"I'm sure there's a shitty music program you could get enrolled into."

"I don't own a violin, though. There's no point."

"You could always learn to play guitar from Dav-"

" _No_." He cut off.

"What?"

"I'll just stay camp-less at the moment. No need to rush into things." He laughed nervously, jumping on to his bed just for the sake of laying there.

Max didn't remember the last time he planned on sleeping in an actual bed instead of the front seat of a car. Daniel always loved traveling, cleansing camps in the span of a day or less so that they'd be back on the road as soon as they could. Max didn't enjoy it as much as his colleague did. He hated it. If he needed to sleep, he always did it in the front seat, and always woke up with a pain in his neck from uncomfortably leaning his head against the window for support. If he trusted Daniel's driving skills, he would've considered sleeping in the backseat, hoping that they wouldn't hit the wrong speed bump and kill him.

After a while of appreciating the existence of beds, Max  _actually_ got ready to go to sleep.

Before he dumped the contents of his jacket pocket into the front of his backpack, he made sure to place his 'inhaler' by his bedside in case he would need it in the middle of the night.

He was very reluctant on taking off his jacket. There were cuts and bruises on his arm from fighting off children not that long ago, and just the thought having it out in the open for anyone to ask about made him feel more than just uncomfortable. Thankfully, Neil didn't seem to care about what Max was doing on his side of the room while he was putting stuff away. He easily put away all his sharp toys without getting in trouble.

Max pulled out the fuzzy and matted teddy bear that he had for the longest time.

"You still sleep with stuffed animals?" Neil asked.

Max looked up at Neil, who was now finally looking away from his book.

"No..?" He stretched the word out long enough for him to put it away again.

"I'm not going to tell anyone."

Max narrowed his eyes, but pulled it back out so that he would be able to sleep with it during the night.

"Are you finished reading?" Max asked, ready to turn off the lantern at any moment.

The boy sighed, bookmarking and closing up the page he was on.

"Yeah."

"Goodnight, Neil."

"Night Max."

The light shut off, and both of the kids in the tent pulled a bed sheet over them before drifting off into a peaceful sleep.


	4. 4

It all seemed to happen so fast, Max could barely wrap his head around the situation.

He could tell the rest of the day wasn't going to be as enjoyable as he thought it would be. Besides waking up in the early hours of the morning because the sounds of nature woke him up so easily, he found himself in a bad mood once he noticed that he wouldn't have been able to fall back asleep. Wide awake, he stayed in the same unmoving position until he heard the chatter of fellow campers what seemed like hours later.

Neil was awake not long after Max was. He glanced over at him, looking him up and down to make sure that he was awake and not just sleeping with his eyes open.

"Morning, Max."

His face scrunched in disgust and he let out a groan.

Neil nodded in agreement, though Max could barely see him in his peripheral vision.

"I'm going to the mess hall."

"I don't.. care." He said, now slowly sitting up on his bed.

"Damn," Neil muttered, focusing all of his limited energy into tying his shoelaces into perfect knots.

Max patted his bedside, frowning when he couldn't feel where his inhaler had gone.

"Neil, have you seen my inhaler?" He asked.

"No, sorry."

Max scowled, "If you find it-"

He stopped as soon as David entered the tent.

"Neil, I.."

"What?"

David gestured for him to leave.

"I need to talk to Max."

"Okay..?"

Neil glanced at Max one last time, before leaving.

"What?" Max asked, standing.

David walked towards him and held out an envelope. Despite not knowing what it was, Max already felt his heart dropped to his stomach, seeing as his name was written on the front in familiar cursive handwriting.

Daniel's handwriting.

"What is this?" He demanded.

"I haven't read it," he admitted.

"David, what the hell is this?" He repeated.

"I don't- I'm not don't know what's on it."

Max's tight grip on it loosened. His gaze returned to the neat handwriting on it, implying that whoever did write it had spent a while on it.

David left.

Trembling hands carefully tore the top off the top of the envelope, and pulled out a sheet of paper folded to fit the inside of it.

It was short, but enough to make sure that the churning feeling in his stomach, similar to what one would feel while falling, would only get worse by the minute.

Daniel was gone.

He left with a note telling Max to watch after his stuff. There was no way of knowing if he needed his things to be watched because he was coming back and needed it to be in good condition, or if it was because he wasn't coming back and wanted Max to be left with it as a painful reminder that, soon, he'd have to take Daniel's job and do it on his own.

_Daniel wouldn't just leave me behind, would he?_

Max scoffed, feeling warm tears going down his face the more he let it sink in.

_Well..._ _He_ _just did._

He felt his knees buckle, and he felt as it got increasingly more difficult to focus on anything.

Maybe he was overreacting.

Maybe he was dreaming.

Maybe-

"Max?"

David was back at the tent entrance again, peeking in just in time to see Max drop to his knees.

"Get out."

He blinked in surprise.

"What..?"

" _Now._ "

"Max, it's okay to feel-"

"David. leave me alone." He interrupted.

"If you-"

"GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY TENT."

For a few seconds, he didn't say anything. It was shocking, listening to a kid who once seemed so happy and nice act like the complete opposite.

David composed himself.

"Okay, well... if you need to talk to someone, I'm a counselor for a reason..."

He disappeared as fast as he entered.

Max sat there for a while, resting on his knees, unbothered from any of the other campers there as well. When he got the motivation to, he neatly folded and tucked the note away into his backpack. Then, he fell back on to his bed.

He was stuck in the same curled-up position on his bed all day. He didn't move, not even when Neil came back in to check on him.

He made sure to stay in that same goddamn position throughout the whole day, listening to the sounds of the others having fun outside- without him.

Just as it should have been.


	5. 5

Due to budget cuts, when Daniel signed up to be a counselor, they couldn't afford to get him a bed at that moment. They pulled out a futon, set it in the middle of the room as a placeholder until they could get an extra for him. When he left, David planned on keeping it there, just in case he would come back or someone else took his job

The morning after everyone knew that Daniel left, Max was found sleeping on that futon. He was almost unnoticeable; a tiny lump in the blanket near the pillows, moving only slightly to breathe.

Gwen came back that same morning. Early.

"Good morning, Gwen!" David cheered, "Glad to see you back!"

She crushed the foam cup that was once holding her hot coffee, and glared at David.

"How was your vacation?"

"Short." She looked around briefly, "Where's the blond one?"

His smile fell.

"He left." He said plaintively.

Gwen smiled, "Really?"

"Unfortunately." He reminded her.

"That's a relief."

" _Gwen._ "

"What? I've already met someone who said they'd be willing to take the job of things went south and people got fired. We're fine."

"Yeah, but Max is really.." He looked out the door, open so that they would be able to see the tents, "..bummed about Daniel leaving."

"Who?"

"Max. He's the camper that came with him."

Gwen had stared at him blankly for the longest times before finally remembering who he was referring to. Her grin vanished in an instant.

"Oh, him? He didn't- he's still here?"

David nodded, "Daniel left Max and his stuff behind."

"That's.. fucked."

"Gwen, language."

"He just left him here? No notice or anything?"

"I mean, he left a note behind, but.. yeah. He just left."

"David, what are we going to do with him?"

"What do you mean?"

"His guardian just left him here! And, unlike all the other little shits here,  _we_ _don't_ _know if_ _he's_ _going to come back for him_ -"

"Gwen. He's a camper. And until Daniel comes back to get him or until summer ends, we are going to keep him here."

"And if he doesn't come back?"

"We'll burn that bridge when we get to it." David's smile returned, "Since you're here, maybe you could try to cheer him up."

She rubbed her eyes, "Somehow I doubt it."

He walked out, saying something along the lines of "Trying never hurt anyone!"

Gwen threw the crushed pieces of her cup into the trashcan, and collapsed on to her bed in defeat, as if she were trying to suffocate herself. Despite the amount of coffee she drank on the drive back, she was still exhausted and felt like she could've murdered someone just to get a full nights rest.

When she turned her head to breathe again, and maybe even take a small nap, she spotted a lump on the bed next to her. At first, she assumed it was an extra pillow, or some of the items David mentioned that Daniel left behind.

Until she saw it move. More than once.

"..David?"

No response from the other counselor, but the lump did twitch slightly.

"Hey, David!" She called out, louder.

"Yes, Gwen?" He asked, poking his head through the door and into the cabin.

She pointed towards the lump, which was now moving more than it had seconds before.

Once he understood what she was talking about, David's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Hello?" He asked it, cautiously moving closer towards it.

"David-" Gwen warned.

A groan was heard when David removed one of the pillows; muffled at first, but becoming clearer once it was fully off his face. David's expression softened.

"Max?"

Gwen saw the boy she met days earlier, only now slightly disheveled and very tired, sit up from his spot on the bed. He looked over at Gwen for a brief moment, then back at David.

"What." He snapped.

"You're supposed to be in your tent with Neil- how did you get in here?"

"You left the window open. I couldn't stand being out there another fucking minute."

Gwen was genuinely surprised when David didn't comment on the use of language. Coming from a child, she thought it would be a more serious issue.

"Why, what happened?" David asked.

" _Neil_ -" Max shook his head, snatching the pillow away from David before continuing. "He just never fucking sleeps. He always keeps the light on, and that keeps me awake with him."

"Just tell him to turn it off," Gwen suggested.

"Then he'll complain about not being able to see what he's working on, dumbass! He's a whiny bitch, and I'll never be able to get some sleep if I'm in the same room as him!"

Max laid back down, and covered his face with the pillow that was taken from him seconds earlier. He no longer cared if they noticed. Instead of curling up into a ball again, Max was flat and spread out on the bed.

"Have you tried telling him all that."

No verbal response from Max.

When David noticed that Max was struggling to breathe under it, he took away the pillow from Max again. But this time, he held it away from him.

"You should join the other campers for breakfast."

"I don't think so." He rolled over, pulling the blanket over his head this time.

David looked towards Gwen, just as he saw her rip the sheets off of Max.

"No-"

"Come on, Max. Join the other campers in the mess hall."

"No. No no no no  _no_. Do you want to hear it in Spanish?  _No._ "

Gwen carefully picked him up. Despite him kicking and yelling at her to put him down, she held him as far away from her as possible, and carried him all the way to the door that was still open.

She dropped him off outside, and slammed the door behind him, locking it.

"Gwen, that wasn't very nice." David scolded, even though he wasn't planning on letting the little shit back inside.

"He wasn't going out otherwise."

The doorknob shook as Max tried opening it. He slammed his fists against the door.

"Go back to your tent!" Gwen called out.

"Fuck you!" He called out.

When no response was heard, Max brushed himself off, and stormed straight into the bathroom.

When he looked back in the mirror, he sighed.

He looked like a mess.

Besides managing to keep his outfit as neat as possible, the rest of his appearance was more than just disheveled. He had noticeable bags under his eyes, and his hair looked like it had a mind of his own.

"Daniel would be disappointed." He muttered to himself, rubbing water on his hands and using to manage his hair.

**\------**

He hasn't stepped foot in the Mess Hall for a while, never in the mornings, despite being there a while now. He knew how much of a shithole it was, how loud everyone was, but he always assumed that everyone would be been calmed down after they first woke up.

Oh boy, was he wrong.

Max pushed around the crap on his tray with his spoon as the sounds of screaming children became normal background noise. How these kids had the natural energy to do that was beyond him.

When his spoon dipped into the mashed potatoes, something he didn't think was allowed to be served during the morning, he held up the spoonful in front of his face.

He had to eat this soon.

No.

_They aren't Daniel._

With the scowl on his face now directed towards the counselors standing away at a safe distance, he made sure that they saw him drop his spoon and push the tray away.

"I'm not eating this." He announced.

Gwen sat in the seat in front of him, not bothering to hide how angry she was, especially since David couldn't see her face.

"Eat." She pressed, pushing it back.

"No." He pushed it back towards her.

They both pushed it back and forth, determined to make the other give in. Gwen pushed a little too hard at one point, and managed to get some of the food on his once clean sweater.

The only thing that was acceptable about his appearance was now ruined.

He looked at it in complete horror.

"Bitch!" He screamed, grabbing the tray and throwing the rest at her.

She hissed in disgust, wiping what she could off of her hair and on to the floor.

They glared at each other for a moment, both feeling the expected urge of wanting to strangle the other. Well, one more than the other. Max reached into his pocket, but wasn't very surprised to find that there was no knife sitting there, waiting for him to slip up and use it with so many  _witnesses_.

Their staring contest broke shortly after the sound of a tray hitting the floor.

"Nikki!"

"Food fight!" She cried, throwing a handful of mash potatoes into the air.

Max could only watch in complete shock as all of the kids grabbed handfuls of their own food, and threw it across the room. David and Gwen were mostly the targets, getting smacked in the face getting too close when trying to apprehend them. He even saw some, not all, scrape some off the floor and use it instead of what was left on their trays.

Slowly, Max's shocked expression turned into one of amusement. Seeing all of these children so eager to cause this much destruction, it-

It gave him an idea.

These children- these little monsters- just listened to the little girl if it meant causing some kind of destruction. All she had to do was say something in order to get all of them doing the same thing.

Max's hand twitched in delight as he came to the realization. He knew exactly what these kids needed if he wanted them to listen blindly to his commands.

A leader.

In the midst of complete chaos, nobody noticed that he successfully managed to slip out of the mess hall. He walked at his own pace towards the counselor's cabin, knowing damn well that nobody would be able to stop him anytime soon.

Underneath Daniel's temporary bed was a smooth and silver suitcase, void of any dirty spots or smudges. He grabbed the handle, and dragged it all the way back to his tent.

He knew it would be useful later.


	6. IMPORTANT UPDATE***

 

I'm so sorry I haven't updated!

Here's a little surprise for the future, though ;) :

01010011 01110100 01101111 01110000 00100000 01100001 01110011 01101011 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101010 01101111 01101001 01101110 00100000 01101101 01111001 00100000 01101110 01100101 01110111 00100000 01100110 01100001 01101110 01100100 01101111 01101101


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